Canzano: Pac-12 football vote spells it out -- Oregon Ducks not in the cool clique

Mario Cristobal

Oregon coach Mario Cristobal before the Ducks' Civil War game against Oregon State, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2019, in Eugene. (Photo by Serena Morones)

Pac-12 football coaches are behaving like they’re auditioning for the sequel to Mean Girls.

Cruel. Tacit. Clique-driven. And the Oregon Ducks aren’t sitting with the cool kids.

Is it the University of Oregon the other conference coaches don’t like? The recruiting act of Ducks’ coach Mario Cristobal? Are they annoyed by Nike’s influence? What is it?

Those are questions to ask today.

More on that later.

Because what happened to the Ducks when the Pac-12′s all-conference teams were revealed on Tuesday was historically unprecedented. It raised questions. Those honors are voted upon by the league’s coaches. The result of the vote was outlined beautifully today in a piece Jon Wilner wrote.

Wrote Wilner:

"We’re talking about the conference champions … the team that won nine of 10 games against Pac-12 opponents … that had Auburn beat for 59 minutes … that poleaxed USC in the Coliseum … that finished sixth in the playoff rankings … that smoked Utah in the championship … that’s headed to the Rose Bowl.

“That team had just four all-conference offensive and defensive players — FOUR! — in a vote of the head coaches taken in the 48 hours after the championship.”

It’s interesting, isn’t it?

When I asked one Pac-12 coach what he thought would happen in the Utah-Oregon championship game, he told me, “Oregon has more talent.” And after another conference coach lost to the Ducks this season, that coach told me, “Imagine playing Oregon with Oregon’s talent.”

Utah put 10 players on the all-conference teams. Also, Kyle Whittingham, universally liked by the conference’s coaches, was voted Coach of the Year.

I dismissed all of this initially as a minor oversight. After all, it’s an All-Conference team that doesn’t really hold tangible value in the larger picture. But after closer examination, I think it actually means a lot.

Oregon’s not in the clique.

If it’s true that the Ducks didn’t have as much talent as others, wouldn’t Cristobal pretty much be Coach of the Year? But I think there’s something much more interesting at play here.

Here’s what is up:

♦ The University of Oregon is perceived as an outlier in the conference. The Pac-12 distributes far less media-rights revenue to its members than its Power Five Conference peers, but that doesn’t affect the Ducks in the same way as others. Phil and Penny Knight have built facilities and established infrastructure. Nike’s influence is undeniable. I once had a competing athletic director explain that he had to make 1,000 telephone calls to donors to raise the same amount of money that Oregon could get with a single call. I have to think competing against that becomes nauseating over time. I think it played a role in the vote.

♦ Mario Cristobal is epic as a recruiter. He’s doing things that have never been done at Oregon. The guy doesn’t lose. Or almost never. And he’s beating the same conference coaches that voted on this week’s awards for those players. I can’t think that act plays well. Pac-12 coaches who compete against Cristobal likely shied away from giving some of his players votes, if only because they know he’d slam them with it in recruiting. Further, when Cristobal was promoted, I heard from more than one Pac-12 coach who wondered why the Ducks were settling for a coach with a losing (27-47) record. I think there are coaches in the conference who would love to perpetuate the opinion that Cristobal is a great recruiter who is only a so-so developer of talent. But by not voting his players onto the All-Conference teams, aren’t they making a contrary argument? Still, it played a role in the vote.

♦ I touched on the Nike influence. I don’t think it can be over-stated. Oregon = Nike. There’s jealousy out there. It’s real and the stuff of Mean Girls. Adidas and Under Armour have made in-roads in the conference in recent years. In fact, when Washington was negotiating with Nike, that deal broke down when Team Swoosh told the Huskies they weren’t willing to pay UW more than they were paying Oregon. Washington signed with Adidas instead. So did Arizona State. And UCLA, Cal and Utah have deals with Under Armour. So not only are five of the 12 conference members with non-Nike entities, there’s a complex dynamic at play there. I think it played a role in the vote.

If the Pac-12 wanted to clear this up, they’d require the vote be made public. It would keep the coaches honest. At the very least, they should publish the actual tabulation of votes this season. I think there’s real interest. Or maybe just let a panel of sportswriters perform the vote. None of them would keep those ballots secret.

I don’t think Oregon will care that it’s not liked. It casts the Ducks as an underdog. That’s sort of refreshing. But it’s ridiculous that an All-Conference team has been reduced to something so petty.

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